Finding The Best Home Inspector or Home Inspection Team
Buying a new home is stressful enough and then add to the mix all the people who help you, your real estate agent, your mortgage agent, your lawyer, and your home inspector. Choosing the right people for the job can make a huge difference. Here a few tips to help you choose the best home inspector for your new home purchase.
Many people will have homes inspectors referred to them by their real estate agents or mortgage brokers but sometimes you have to find your home inspector on your own. When you search for a home inspector in your area you will likely see many results and it can be hard to choose who is the best. You have to consider, cost, age and experience, qualifications, and reviews. Lets break these items down one at a time.
1) Cost, sometimes cost is posted on a website and sometimes you have to talk the home inspector first. We recommend talking to the home inspector directly so you can confirm the cost and make sure they are properly quoting you. Don't just look for the cheapest listed price for a home inspection. Home inspections should cost anywhere from $350 to $600 for a typical home.
2) Age and experience can play a big role in who you pick to be your home inspector, but should it? As I home inspector I know that working in the construction industry for many years can help give you a strong knowledge base, but it's not what makes you a good home inspector. Only years of experience as a home inspector will make you better at inspecting homes. So don't just pick some older retired contractor who has only been doing inspection part-time for a few years, they likely won't be as good or any better than a home inspector who been trained and experienced at doing home inspections full time. I'll come back to age and experience later.
3) Qualification is perhaps the most important thing you can look for in a home inspector especially because regulation around who can do a home inspection are not yet in place in Ontario although this is starting to change. Make sure your home inspector has an InterNACHI or other governing body membership. This will ensure the home inspector has completed their courses and has proper insurance. You can always go to the InterNACHI website to confirm the home inspector is in fact registered.
4) Reviews is a tricky one as many there are many great home inspectors who just haven't done a great job with there online presence. But if you are searching online for a home inspector the best home inspector in your area should have great reviews on google. Just like choosing a great restaurant, reviews help guide new customers to the top performing home inspectors. Take the time to review the website to ensure they have all the proper qualifications like membership designation and insurance.
Back to age and experience. Home inspectors come in all shapes and sizes so it can be hard to tell who's new and who's been doing for a while. I'm here to tell you that there is nothing wrong with choosing someone who is newer to the home inspection industry, just make sure that if you choose a home inspector who is newer that they are working with an experienced team of home inspectors. I would always recommend looking for a home inspect team versus a solo act. This will help ensure that even if the home inspector is green, they have a support to help them and make sure nothing is missed when they are inspecting your home. A home inspection in an important step in buying a home, so make sure to choose the best home inspector for the job.
